I keep my blog as a personal record of what I'm up to, which might be seen as working towards "An elegant sufficiency, content, retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books, ease and alternate labour, useful life". I'm certainly not there yet. There is quite some way to go!

Jul 19 Here we go

Same routine this morning. We’d more or less packed our bags before going for breakfast just down the street.

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Waffles were beautifully coordinated with the outfit.

The corned beef hash hit the spot too.

My blueberry pancakes didn’t hang around long enough for a photograph

As we walked back I tried to take the photo which explains why those floor to ceiling windows right outside our door (and in our room) are scary. They’re part of that angled wall…

We had a little light shopping to do on this, our last morning in the city. More of that later, but I couldn’t resist taking a snap of these two beauties in the Mall today. I’ll leave you to imagine the faces and will save details of the purchase for another time.

Around lunchtime, we headed for O’Hare for our flights. The Interstate was as jam packed as it always seems to be and we were glad we’d allowed ourselves plenty of time.

At this point, we were faced with a choice. Shall we carry straight on to the airport or go right towards Milwaukee and start our road trip all over again? The vote was unanimous. Much as we’ve enjoyed every bit of the trip, we’re all ready for home and tempting though the thought is, we really couldn’t hope to have a better experience a second time around!

So, feeling thankful for strong shuttle bus drivers who manage heavy suitcases as if they were empty, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. Mary’s flight to Los Angeles was leaving at 5.10pm from a different terminal from ours, which was scheduled for 6.10.

As my hero sat reading in the (windowless) lounge, I couldn’t resist taking a look around the duty free shops, not that they are anything to write home about. However, as I wandered around, I noticed it was tipping down with rain outside, so much so that the other side of the airport was hardly visible. I heard thunder too and was glad we’d managed to get there in the dry. Fingers crossed, Mary’s flight wouldn’t be delayed because of the storm – ours was reported to be on time.

I went back to the lounge and we waited for our expected boarding call around 5.30pm…except it didn’t come. Judith, manager of the BA facility explained that there was “a situation” and we should hold on and not go anywhere just yet. She checked on Mary’s flight which hadn’t left yet either…oh dear. Just as we decided to have dinner in the lounge (in the hope of a good night’s sleep on the plane) the flight crew arrived looking a little hot and bothered – clearly, we were going nowhere just yet, then.

The boarding announcement came around 7pm and thankfully we were soon on our way. It seems as though as the storm came through, the terminal building had been struck by lightning and the source providing the power for our plane whilst it was on the ground had been hit. Standing on the tarmac for a couple of hours with no air conditioning, the temperature inside the cabin had gone to 45C, at which point the Captain had sent the crew to cool off in the lounge. Fortunately, it was soon resolved and by the time we got on board, it was more comfortable and we had a smooth, 7 hour flight home. Sadly for Mary, not only was her flight delayed but her arrival into LAX was less than perfect – it was gone 1am when she finally arrived home.

So there it is. The 2015 Summer Road Trip, Exploring the Mid West was chalked up to history. 2787 miles on the road from Chicago O’Hare airport; our round trip including one flight from Minneapolis to Little Rock.